Once Upon a Time
by SharpiesSmellGood
Summary: Temari' was her name. 'Princess' was what they called her. But who was she, really? Drabble on the Sand family. Starting mainly from Temari's viewpoint, but that'll change.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Naruto.

God, wouldn't **that** rock, though.

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Once upon a time, there was this girl.

She was amazing in almost every way you could think up. Popular, pretty, stylish, intelligent, athletic, strong, and kind (even if she didn't like to act like it). Not to mention she was the daughter of an extremely rich man, the leader of the country, no less. In that way, she was sort of like a princess.

However, she wasn't the princess type. She wasn't your average damsel-in-distress kind of girl. Loud, cocky, a little bossy, and unafraid to inform you of her opinion, she was a tad unconventional, you know, for a princess.

And, of course, she wasn't without her flaws. She had a bad tendency of being rude, and her cooking seriously tanked, but, all in all, she was a pretty good person.

Back in the day, her entire life had been pretty much fantastic. Everything right as rain.

First of all, her family was almost as perfect as she. Her father, strong and powerful; her mother, kind, gentle, and sweet; and her beloved uncle, caring and understanding.

And her life only kept on getting better. When she was two, her mother gave birth to a little baby brother, a wonderful addition to her family. At first she was a little wary of him, because she had enjoyed being the baby, and she wasn't sure how to act like a good big sister.

Luckily enough, being a sibling, like everything else, came completely naturally to her. She treasured this new brother, and visited him often. She thought her life was absolutely perfect, and was sure that nothing could ruin it.

Unfortunately, this was not the case. While she was enjoying her childhood to the fullest extent, people out on the streets of her father's country were dying. It seemed there wasn't enough food in the world, and neighbouring countries had even sent thieves to steal what little food they had. The King knew he had to do something, had to strengthen his army and ensure safety. One of his advisors told him of a ritual, one to make a "weapon" of sorts. They were sure this tool would be able to protect their country from further harm and thievery.

The King readily agreed, and asked what would be needed for the ritual. The woman who had been asked to perform the ritual explained the details to him.

"First of all," the old lady told him, "I will require a pregnant woman willing to sacrifice her child for the sake of the nation."

The King, needless to say, was a bit surprised, for he had not realised that this 'ultimate weapon' would involve a death. He agreed nonetheless, though, certain saving a country was worth the price of one unborn baby's life.

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When our young, now three-year-old heroine found out her mother was pregnant, she was ecstatic. That meant she'd have a new baby to cherish, a new brother. Or, her uncle informed her, maybe even a sister! She was so excited she could hardly contain herself.

Oddly, she seemed to be the only one who was so overjoyed. Her brother wasn't old enough to understand, although he was a talented child, like herself ('5 months old and already crawling!' her mother would brag.) She got why he didn't care about the whole thing, since he didn't know what miracle was about to happen. What she simply could not comprehend was her father's general indifference, or her uncle's lack of enthusiasm, or, in fact, any emotion at all other than concern and sometimes even anger when her mother burst out crying. Why was she crying? the princess would wonder, Wasn't this a good thing, like before?

When she confronted her father about the matter, he assured her that, yes, this was indeed a good thing, but it wasn't like before, so she had to be a good girl and not put any more stress on her mother. She promised not to be any trouble and left, wondering as she walked away why this time was different than the last.

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Hmm… so, just in case you're a little bit slow (or stumbled upon this fic randomly off of Google or some other search engine and have absolutely **no idea** what's going on) this is about the sand sibling's family, kind of gravitating off Temari's point of view.

My other fanfic's first chapter was ludicrously long, and this one is oddly short. But only because I'm posting chapter two almost immediately after it.

You know who I like _A LOT_? People who comment.


	2. Chapter 2

Sadly, I still don't own Naruto. I'm working on it, though. (I jest, of course.)

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After nine long months, her mother went into labour and was taken away, to a 'safer location', a doctor explained to her. She wasn't sure what to think of that, and was automatically suspicious, because she'd always thought her home was very safe. I mean, they had guards and alarms and locks and everything. She was suddenly determined to find out where exactly they were taking her mother. She snooped around, and heard something about a 'ritual'. That was the word people kept on using, and she wasn't sure what it meant. She went to ask her uncle, but he only looked stunned for a moment and then scolded her for eavesdropping.

The next day, her uncle came back home with such a blank, cold, emotionless expression on his face. This was extremely unusual, since he was always so cheerful.

"Hey!" She called out to him, "hey, where's my new little sister?"

He turned to face her, still with the blank look.

"Or brother," she added quickly, "I don't really care that much which. But where is it? I mean, she. Or, no, uh, wait, he. Or…"

Before she could continue her bumbling rant, he walked away from her into his room without answering her question.

The princess had always been a curious child. She couldn't just leave this be! Besides, she hated it when people didn't answer legitimate questions.

She scowled, and went to follow him into his bedroom. Just before she opened the door, though, she swore heard muffled sobs.

What, exactly, was going on here?

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Apparently, she later discovered, the 'ritual' what-cha-ma-call-it thing was a success, and now her baby brother (Yes, it was another boy, she finally knew. Oh well.) was complete. What a weird wording, she thought. How could somebody be 'complete'? Now, she didn't exactly pride herself on her amazing grammatical skills (she was, after all, still only three.) (_And a half!_) but she knew that calling a baby complete sounded odd. However, she had much more important and much less school-ish things to think about.

Like why her new baby brother was staying with their uncle, and particularly why he didn't seem all too happy about it.

Like why while the new addition to the family was with _him_, she and the boring, drooly lump of her other brother were to live with the King.

Like why people were _so insistent_ that she live with her father instead of her uncle.

Somewhere early on in this train of thought it had occurred to her that this implied she and her newest brother were not going to be seeing so much of each other.

The princess, needless to say, wasn't so thrilled about this information.

The absolute _worst_ part of the whole situation was the people spreading lies. They kept on saying her mother was dead.

That's impossible, she thought sullenly to herself, I saw mommy not even two days ago!

Now she understood why no one else had been excited. Since her youngest brother's birth, there had been no sign of her mother, she hadn't even _met_ the baby, she'd hardly spoken to her uncle, and her father was 'too busy for visitors right now', even his own family.

She was beginning to think maybe she had been wrong about the whole new-little-brother-thing after all.

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I'm sorry to admit that I think almost the whole story is going to have annoyingly short chapters. I hope no one minds.

Comments are always appreciated.


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